[enachtry]

I wonder. Following the latest advancements afforded to total surveillance as well as never before possible profiling-depth of people based on everything they've ever done since their teens, how will this change gov-level secretive organisations? Would someone like Ellsberg be weeded out even before his first interview or would he be detected and neutralized at the very first step outside the lines?

Gov can now scrutinize candidates for secretive organisations en masse for even the lowest positions and effectively weed out anyone who's ever shown even a hint of dissent, morality or adherence to principles who've proven to be any kind of risk against total obedience.

Gov can now also monitor employees' every heartbeat, every step, sleep patterns, stress levels and every spoken word (literally true for all of these), let alone their actions.

The risk of getting someone like Ellsberg past the door, let alone at any meaningful level, can now be crushed at previously unthinkable values.

How would these improved, airtight, secretive organisations operate and what would be the consequences? It feels like all these advancements in tech placed us on a one way superhighway towards returning to empires, aristocracies, eternal ruling classes & eternal commoners.

[pavlov]

The previous US president took classified war plans with him, kept them in cardboard boxes in a bathroom at his residence which is also a public club, showed some of the papers to members of the public, and then lied about them when the Feds came calling.

Having an airtight recruiting funnel at the bottom is useless if the top is wide open.

[FeepingCreature]

Not sure this is what you intended to say, but it sounds like the logic here is- "Reelect Trump, he's now our only chance of more juicy leaks."

[pavlov]

More like: “You can imagine your clearance system is impenetrable and the elite’s secrets will be forever safe, but you’re not actually prepared for black swan events like a president who simply enjoys dispensing state secrets to random people at his own golf club.”